Dude, they totally missed the mark on this one. Seriously. I wouldn’t lie to you.
And you hate to call somebody out when they’ve made a mistake, but this time, I just had to.
See? What did I tell you? Merry Christmas! 🙂
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Stewardship On a Billboard?
Passing through Atlanta airport the other day, and a hallway billboard caught my eye. It wasn’t Jane Goddall or the chimp that made me want to stop and look, it was the word – STEWARDSHIP – that did it.
If you visit jeffnoel.org, and don’t know, there are four other blogs I write daily. Over on the upper right corner is Blogroll, which has a one click function to the others.
Anyway, it dawned on me, humbly if I might add, there aren’t too many five-a-day bloggers, so it’s a working name for now.
Five-a-day blogger.
Sounds funny. And crazy. And slightly boastful. Oh well, my apologies.
So here’s another crazy thing, in writing this post, it dawned on me that I should mention, just yesterday, I coined also myself the “One-take-You Tube video” guy.
Back to today’s story on Stewardship. Here’s the one-take-You Tube video, as a result of stopping to pause:
Military Man or Angel?
Yesterday’s post ended with, “Five minutes later, he was an angel.”
However our encounter started an hour earlier. When I first approached him, he was having breakfast in the small food court. We were the only people there at the time.
I asked him permission to say something and, of course, he graciously granted it.
After sharing a very simple thank you with him – and I may have mentioned my Dad (Korean War) and Father-in-law (WWII) both served – we both smiled and went on about our morning.
About an hour later, totally by chance we end up sitting together for 3-4 minutes right before boarding.
The plane was a smaller regional jet and, being in Zone 1 (first boarding) I walked out on the tarmac and up the steps (like the President does) to get on the jet.
It was there that panic set in. “My phone! Where’s my phone? Oh no! I can’t be missing my phone. I’ve got to find it!”
As I was about to have a meltdown, and was walking the opposite way to get off the plane to go back inside the terminal, the Military Man, my new Angel, was holding it out in his hand.
God is good! 🙂
Citizen Soldier
Not talking about the Three Doors Down rock song Citizen Soldier, or our Country’s National Guard, for whom the song is dedicated.
Talking about all the active duty men and women military personnel I’ve seen this week. Orlando to Atlanta, Atlanta to Columbia, Columbia to Atlanta, and Atlanta to Dallas.
Decided, in the spirit of giving, to not only give thanks internally, but to give thanks externally.
So I awkwardly asked how best to show appreciation for their efforts. They all said basically the same thing.
A simple thank you means a lot.
And so that’s what I’ve been doing, going only a little out of my way (that’s all it takes), to thank each and every one I pass.
The Lord works in mysterious ways. One of the service men, heading back to Iraq and leaving behind a wife and three children (16, 10, 6) at Christmas time, wound up being an angel for me about five minutes later.
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.
At dinner last night, a friend reminded me that the day before was the anniversary of the attack at Pearl Harbor. This came up because I had mentioned that John Lennon was assassinated December 8, 1980.
I can’t explain to you why, but I felt particularly stupid for remembering a rock star milestone, but not an American milestone.
Well, actually, I hadn’t remembered John Lennon’s death. Was reminded of that by a Facebook friend. Anyway, I had a spiritual moment that gently reminded me that the world has always been a tough, uncertain place.
It prompted me to silently, and discreetly, count my blessings and give thanks for what we have today.
From Wikipedia: Despite numerous historical precedents of unannounced military action, the lack of any formal declaration prior to the attack led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim “December 7th, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy”.
And while it’s proper to remember American milestones, it’s even greater to remember another day that will live on forever – Christmas.